ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the economic dimension of threefold sustainability is discussed and related to the social and environmental dimensions. As the title of chapter underlines, the concept of threefold sustainability considers the living standard of the largest part of society, not average living standard. This relates to one of the basic philosophical principles of liberal society, the Greatest Happiness principle. In most Western societies this principle is violated. Although they have developed a huge distributive state, they are poor in confining social inequality and in securing a reasonable living standard for their populations. On the contrary, the distributive state drives rather than confines inequality. More than governments’ social policy, the “nickel-and-dime economy” secures a reasonable living standard of living for lower income groups. But it does so in an absurd way which disguises inequality while in effect exacerbating it. Transformation of the “nickel-and-dime economy” to a new high value economy is, thus, a major issue of sustainable development. In this chapter, I do not discuss what the emerging new economy could like, but rather establish a model of this new economy which is desirable in terms of threefold sustainability. This model would also solve a key issue of sustainable development, namely the future of work.
